At this time I feel impelled to write an expression of gratitude for the healing power of Christian Science as it has been manifested in my experience for the past twenty-seven seven years. From the time that I was fourteen years of age I was a seeker for a practical religion through the reading of the Bible and activity in church work. After a number of years I came to feel the emptiness of the orthodox ritualism, and for a year was being prepared to receive the message of Christian Science. So it was that, when I read the chapter on Prayer in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, I realized that my prayers had been answered, and at that moment I knew that Christian Science was the only religion for me. It was not, however, till some months later that I was definitely launched in the study of the textbook through the loving explanations of a consecrated student and practitioner. At that time I laid off glasses, which I had worn for some years, through my friend's explanation that I did not need them because spiritual man is the reflection of the perfect Mind, God, in whom there could be no impairment of sight.
On my return to my home in the Middle West, I was forced, with what I had gained from these loving and helpful explanations, to begin at once to make my own proofs of Christian healing. For many years I had been the victim of a painful bowel disorder which recurred at intervals of a few weeks. After five months of study and application of what I learned I had my first instantaneous healing, brought about through my own study. I awoke Christmas morning violently ill with this disorder, but after reading a short time in the textbook I fell asleep and wakened an hour or two later completely healed; and this healing proved to be permanent.
For two years I worked to gain my freedom from another physical difficulty of long standing, and then the healing came in a flash of light which clearly revealed to me that the pain I seemed to be experiencing was no more a part of me than it was of the bed upon which my body was lying. That healing was also permanent.
